


We Are Here

by plumandfinch



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-09 13:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5541050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumandfinch/pseuds/plumandfinch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a dangerously close one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Are Here

**Author's Note:**

  * For [indiefic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/indiefic/gifts).



> Here’s a little something for my Steggy Secret Santa, @indiefic whose Through Dangers Untold and Hardships Unnumbered is one of my favorite, favorites. Happy Steggymas!

It was a dangerously close one. An unexpected Hydra squad cut them off from the rest of the Commandos and they have to fight feverishly to get past the set of doors before Dernier’s little gifts detonate. He’s seen her fight, to be sure, but this had a level of ferocity to it that he did not anticipate. He and Howard watched her once take on a strapping young lieutenant, who had gotten a little too big for his boots. They had pummeled each other in the extra storage room that the SSR had turned into a makeshift gym. Howard had whistled softly after a particularly spectacular punch, “She’s the dirtiest fighter I’ve ever seen.” Even Phillips had harrumphed when he walked past them, standing at the edge of the ring, “Well, that ought to teach him.”

 

Steve was glad of it now. There had been unexpected squads before, of course, but the thought of the bombs ticking away made his hands sweat in his gloves. He would also later quietly admit to himself that it was different, with Peggy. Not that he wouldn’t bet on her against anyone - the entire 107th didn’t stand a chance, in fact. But this was where the rubber really met the road and as much as he was sure that he would never share this thought with another living soul, he was equally sure that he’d rather she already be out in the trucks, not fighting tooth and nail in this particular instant. As if on cue, she flipped the last guard over with a satisfying grunt, winked roguishly at him, and turned to sprint down the hallway towards the exit. He’s right next to her as their hands both reach the door which is exactly the moment he hears the minute click behind him. Without thinking, just as he did on that dusty street in Brooklyn, he grabs her by the waist and pulls her through the door and behind the shield. He feels her fingers grip onto his arm and then he can’t feel anything at all as the building blows.

 

\--

 

In some sort of automatic survival instinct, she had tucked her knees into her chest which she discovers in the midst of the disconcerting absence of noise that followed what was perhaps all the noise she had ever heard all at once. She cautiously wiggles her toes in her boots. It seems like an awful bother to open her eyes until the silence is overtaken by a ringing. She blinks several times as the remains of the world bleed into view. They are, she is surprised to find, face to face. Seemingly of its own volition, her hand has snuck its way up between their chests and laid itself across his cheek. Steve’s eyes shoot open and he shifts, which makes her dizzy. She can see his mouth moving, in blurs, but can only hear the ringing. It takes her jangled eyesight a moment to catch the fear in his eyes. She brushes her thumb reassuringly across his cheekbone. _I am fine_ , she says through her touch since the words cannot seem to make their way out of her mouth, _we are fine_ , _we are here_.

 

She feels, rather than hears Falsworth and Morita stumble over the rubble. Then Morita’s confident hands looking for injuries, Falsworth’s arm under her shoulder blades to help shift her upright. The ringing becomes murmurs and echoes as Steve gets looked over. Morita takes off his cap and wipes his hand across his forehead and says things she’s sure she would like to hear but still can’t make out. She feels the sting of something along a gash on her forehead and she must flinch for his hand is on her arm and he is nodding in what she can only imagine is reassurance.

 

\--

 

The Commandos won’t stop talking about it. Dugan’s eyebrows seem permanently raised to the brim of his hat and she catches Dernier crossing himself. They get back and the entire base seems to know. Steve gets an awful lot of pats on the back and claps on the shoulder and she has her hand shaken by more than a few of the men.

 

 _Steve_. She sighs. She can still feel when he enters a room, there’s a shift in the energy, but it’s stronger now. She imagines she feels him move all around the base. A shake of her head to clear it is a useless gesture. Somehow everything is still moving like paste. Her reports take double the time, Phillips had to ask her a question three times in their morning briefing. Her hands shake just slightly, when she opens a folder or grasps a pencil. If they weren’t in the middle of this mess, she’d probably have been given some leave but the medics, under Morita’s watchful eye, had pronounced them both fit for service. Not that anyone expected Steve to have any trouble. The words in the latest reconnaissance report on her desk swim in front of her eyes so she picks it up and hurls it. Then the pencil. Then her notebook. She slams her way to standing and boots her wooden chair toward the wall. She stops then, hands on her hips and furious. This will not do. She turns.

 

He is there in the doorway.

 

The already swirling maelstrom intensifies. She is so enraged that she feels tensed to stone but he’s there, with those bottomless eyes, and something gives way. Two shaky steps towards him and he closes the distance. “Peggy,” is all he says, quietly. She shakes her head and it stops him in his tracks. She shakes her head again and reaches out for him and it’s the first time he gathers her to his chest. Their touches thus far had been mainly perfunctory or life-saving. She thinks that this, curled against him with her red nails entangled in the back of his uniform jacket and his impossibly warm arms wrapped so completely around her, this is another kind of life-saving. “I’m terribly mad at you,” she chokes  out, muffled by his shoulder, “why is this so easy for you?” It is unfair, she knows, as the words leave her mouth. To his credit, Steve merely nods and tightens his arms around her. A month ago she would have pulled away. She would have called him Captain Rogers. She would have insinuated that their conduct was unbecoming. But that was Before. Before they had come so close to being blown to smithereens. She lifts her head and presses a small kiss to the corner of his mouth. They're so close she hears his small sigh. She sighs too as she buries her head in the crook of his neck, his arms tightening around her again, relieved to have reached After.


End file.
